September 27, 2008

Future Projects and Apple Deep-Sixing Anarchic Collaboration

Here are some projects I want to pursue in my spare time:

Check out the Android SDK and build an application that takes advantage of the multi-tasking support in the OS.

Build that oh-so-cool iPhone Document Scanner stand.

Think of an entry into the Google $10M 10^100 Project. It’s a long-shot but who knows what shards my brain will correlate now that I am thinking about the possibilities.

Try and build this web server on a business card. Should be amusing.

You might be wondering why I have an iPhone yet want to develop on Android; the answer is simple - it is a better development platform. It isn’t bound by draconian Apple rules and regulations on what can and cannot be published. It isn’t bound to a single distribution channel like the App Store. And the clincher - you can build applications that can run in the background, which is a crucial thing Apple won’t allow a developer to do with its SDK.

Android - with applications already utilizing GPS, WiFi, 3G(HSPA/HSDPA), Bluetooth, Camera & the Accelerometer - is a developer’s playground. I am going to take a wild guess and say the only environment coming in the future that can be a rival is Nokia’s Maemo 5 pairing with the Texas Instruments OMAP3 processor. Apple needs to get its act together and realize that PRODUCT DESIGN CHANNELS should be like Cathedrals. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CHANNELS should be like Bazaars.

Apple is asphixiating the iPhone with the current strategy. The App Store has many quality apps but it is also littered with sub-par “me too” clones and potentially brilliant applications like Pandora Radio crippled by stupid rules that disallow it from running in the background. Obviously the iPhone OS can do it because iPod functionality runs just fine in the background.